*Image courtesy of foratherapist.com
I love for my life to follow a routine. I do the laundry the same day every week. I have a morning routine. I have a running routine. I have a study routine. I have a nighttime routine. When I get my routine figured out I always feel a huge sense of relief.
Since I've been working the past three weeks I've pretty much had to throw my routine out the window. The problem is that I haven't really found a new routine yet. It has been an adjustment to go from being home most of the day to not being home most of the day, and I really like being home most of the day.
Some days I feel very scattered, like I've lost control of my life, which is not a feeling I enjoy. I am very thankful that I can work the hours I want to and can be home when my kids get home from school everyday. But still...it's been a little bit hard.
Because I crave a routine.
Last night, while cooking another last-minute dinner, I decided to try and get organized where dinners are concerned. I started making a menu for the next two weeks and thought it would be a good idea to consult my calendar. My calendar was set on the current day, and as I looked at that day, my heart instantly plummeted through my chest and clear down to my toes:
Aug. 29 - 4:45 pm. Parker's Senior Pictures, High School Auditorium.
It was 6:45 pm.
I had totally forgotten about Parker's pictures. This might not seem like a big deal, but the photography studio we have to use for Senior pictures is clear across town - about an hour away if there's no traffic - and yesterday was the last day the photographer was actually coming to Parker's school. And the deadline for Senior pictures is tomorrow. The photographer had come to the school a couple of other times but Parker was out of town for both of those.
I could not believe I had totally forgotten about this. I'm usually really good at remembering things, so I was beating myself up pretty badly about forgetting. I hate to forget things, especially appointments.
I called for Kam to come down and finish dinner and Parker and I jumped (pretty literally) into the car and raced over to the school hoping the photographer would still be there and would be willing to work us in, because I wasn't sure there would even be any appointments available at their studio.
All I could think of as we were racing to the school was, "My son might not be in his Senior yearbook. And it's all my fault." Definitely not a "Mother of the Year" moment.
We got to the auditorium and were greeted by about a hundred parents and students waiting to get their pictures taken. I told the lady what had happened, apologized for missing our appointment, and she said, "No problem." Phew. Huge sigh of relief. I signed Parker in and we sat down to wait.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
We had left so quickly that we didn't bring anything to do. We were both starving so Parker got us some chips out of the vending machine.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Three (3!) hours into our wait we were finally called up to pay for our pictures and choose the plan we wanted. We only wanted the picture for the yearbook so that put us a little ahead of those who wanted yearbook pictures and other Senior pictures.
We waited about 30 minutes more and Parker was finally draped in the tuxedo shirt, jacket and bow tie.
After about 30 more minutes his name was finally called to have his picture taken.
Hallelujah! We were done!
As we were leaving, at 10:55 pm, I did feel badly for the parents and students who had been there an hour before we arrived who were still waiting for their non-yearbook Senior pictures to be taken.
I must say that Parker was a real trooper throughout this whole experience. He has never been a sit-quietly-and-do-nothing sort of kid. And we did have some time to just talk, which was a silver lining in this whole experience.
But the best silver lining is:
Parker will be in his Senior yearbook.
And that was worth the four hour wait.
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